By Brayden Dirks
On January 4th, the Royals returned from their Christmas break and traveled to Lake Park to take on the H-LP Wolves. MMCRU beat the Wolves at home back in early December 55-49. That game was close until about four minutes left in the fourth quarter, when Royals sophomore center Mitchell Schnepf scored several key baskets to secure the win. That ended up being the Royals first victory of the season, and now they looked for another one against the Wolves in their second contest.
The MMCRU boys started off well with 6 points in the first minute and a half, but then the rest of the first quarter was rather even. After a quarter of play the score was 11-11. The Royals defense started to break down in the second quarter, while the H-LP offense kept rolling. MMCRU kept steady with their points and the score ended up being 29-21, in favor of H-LP, going into halftime. Both teams played well in the third quarter with the Royals scoring 11 and the Wolves scoring 10. However, the Royals needed to play stellar defense and shoot well in order to come away with the win. That was not the case in the fourth quarter, as H-LP scored 16 points, most of them on transition layups. MMCRU was not able to match that offensively and they came away with the loss, and the score being 55-42. The Royals now have a record of three wins and four losses.
Sophomore Mitchell Schnepf led the way in points for the Royals with 15, and he had 10 rebounds. Junior Derek Goth and sophomore Owen Schroeder both had two three pointers made, and eight points each. Freshman Jace Colling had four points, and his classmate Michael Peterson had three points. Sophomores Kyler Bork and Jonah Petersen rounded out the scoring with two points each.
Coach Cam Kuchel was not overly thrilled with MMCRU’s performance but is looking towards the future, “We came out a little flat in our first competition after the new year. H-LP brought the pressure and we turned the ball over too many times. It didn’t help things that we shot poorly from the floor as well. That’s just basketball sometimes. We’ll use the next two days to get better and prepare for South O’Brien.” The Royals will play Trinity Christian on Tuesday the 11th in Remsen. Then they will play George-Little Rock at George on the 13th, and HMS in Hartley on the 14th. Please come and support the MMCRU boys as they continue into the second half of the season.